Beginning of the end?

Mitt Romney, in an article in today's WS journal, indicates that the Big 3 should fail. Why, you ask? Because then they will be forced to come to grips with their own short-sightedness. Then they would be forced to admit that they made mistakes and that their collective pasts have caught up with them. Give up their corporate jets, eliminate the golden parachutes, cut the salaries of their entire management staff and renegotiate their union contracts.



On paper it looks good and in theory it should work. But will they do it? Someone has to make the hard choices. Unions improved the working conditions for everyone who has ever held a job; union member or not. However, we are now at a point in time where we have to decide between 30 people making $21.00 an hour plus benefits and maybe 100 people making $12.00 an hour plus benefits. We also need to look at retirees whose income and benefits are guaranteed regardless of the economy.



My benefits are not guaranteed after I retire. At this point I am not even sure I can retire and there are million of others who have to make choices between food, medicine and utilities even with Social Security and Medicare Part D.



I have exaggerated to make a point. The Big 3 with the Government's help has been allowed to become dinosaurs. They can no longer sustain themselves in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Government kept pushing back the deadlines for fuel efficiency and foreign auto makers stepped in and filled the void. At first the cars were not very attractive or comfortable. However that has changed.



In order to survive, the Big 3 must change and make the tough decisions. They must also do it without taxpayer money bailing them out. Taxpayers are not an endless source of funds for every corrupt, greed monger. Auto-makers and businesses in America cannot continue 'business as usual'. This is a new world we live in. There are nations providing services and goods that at one time, only the US could provide. Our place in the world is changing. We can chose to embrace it as we have done in the past and become stronger. Or we can bury our heads in the sands of the past and pretent we are still the greatest nation on the earth. Resting on the laurels of the past is one way to be run over by the future.



Americans have never run away from a challenge. We are or were noted for being ingenious and going where no one had come before. Status quo was not good enough, we had to prove that we could do it better. That the nation born of castouts, ruffians and ne'er do wells was every bit as good as the aristocats in Europe.



We, the descendants of those original colonists, have become complacent with our lot in life. We are no longer the dreamers, inventors of the past.